


Redundant

by Book_Squirrel



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Anxiety, F/M, Fear, Hitchcock reference, Nightmare, fear is a powerful motivator, what if, when your boss is a nightmare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 10:24:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17958689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Book_Squirrel/pseuds/Book_Squirrel
Summary: When Sandboy checks in, Nathalie's nightmare begins.(Disclaimer: I have only seen as far as "Mayura", meaning I'm probably dead wrong as far as Nathalie's motivation from going a chill 35 to 180 mph as far as helping Gabriel.)The Mature rating is due to sexual and violent themes.Trigger Warning: Some mild self harm.





	Redundant

The rhythmic thumping of a bed against the wall woke her up.  

Nathalie pulled the pillow over her head. Didn’t the neighbours ever sleep?

Then she realised it was her bed that was rocking. She fumbled for the light switch and her glasses.

She looked to her right and pin wheeled out of the bed, landing hand on her shoulder.

Emilie Agreste cried out as her husband brought her to a climax. Her green eyes blinked open. She looked at Nathalie and winked before running her hands through her husband’s loose hair, moaning his name.

Gabriel kissed Emilie passionately, intimately. His long designer’s fingers ran over the slim woman’s body.

Nathalie scrambled to her feet.

He stopped at a kiss on his wife’s shoulder and looked directly at his assistant. ‘Still here?’

‘She’s back? How? When?’

‘Ladybug and Chat Noir stand defeated. I got my wish. You are no longer needed.’ Gabriel returned his attentions to his wife.

Emilie caressed her husband’s face. ‘I’ve missed you.’

He smiled at his wife with a fondness that would have surprised—well, everyone.

Nathalie’s heart ached.

‘How much longer?’ panted Emilie.

‘Not much, my sweet.’ Gabriel planted another kiss on his wife’s neck. He sat up and pulled a pair of sewing sheers from his pocket. ‘I submitted the paperwork for your resignation to HR as soon as she was back.’

Nathalie backed up towards her bedroom door.

‘But then I realised,’ he ran the dull edge of the scissors along his jawline. ‘You know too much for normal termination procedures.’

Emilie caught her husband by his striped cravat and pulled him close. ‘Be nice. You couldn’t have done with without her.’

She pushed him off the bed and sat up, fixing her blue tea dress. She patted the space on the bed beside her. ‘Come here.’

Nathalie obeyed and perched on the bed.

Emilie played with the red streak in Nathalie’s hair. ‘You know, you’ve always been a part of this family. I’ll always remember for how you kept my boys safe in my absence.’ Her hand ran down the assistant’s face and to her throat. ‘Your memory will be kept by Agrestes for many generations.’

‘Madame?’ whispered Nathalie. ‘Why are you both here?’

‘Sh. You went so far above and beyond the call of duty.’ Emilie ran the tips of Nathalie’s red streak across her lips. ‘But I cannot thank you.’

She shoved Nathalie hard, sending her flying back to the bed. In the same sweet, musical tone, she said, ‘If only you had applied your signature efficiency to bringing me back.’

Her hands wrapped around Nathalie’s neck, thumbs pressing on either side of her windpipe.

Gabriel stood beside the bed and stroked his wife’s hair. She arched her back and purred, basking in her husband’s attention as she strangled her rival.

Nathalie twisted her hips, throwing Emilie off and into Gabriel. She scrambled over the tangled bodies and into her darkened living room. She went straight to her purse and dug out her phone.

‘Nathalie?’ said a man’s voice.

She whirled around.

The phone dropped to the floor.

Her ex-husband leaned against the window, a dull silhouette. ‘You could have worked harder.’

‘I gave everything I had!’

To your married, psychotic, slave-driving employer. Never to me.’

Nathalie’s hands pulled at her loose hair. ‘How are you here?’

Screams and crashes came from outside. An Akuma attack? Please, please, _please_ be an Akuma attack!

Gabriel and Emilie strode in from the bedroom. Lights from outside played over the couple’s sharp features, casting long, dark shadows. Gabriel’s fingers lightly brushed Emilie’s neck.

‘Why are you covering for him?’ said he ex. ‘You’re just a mistress without the sex, waiting to join him on terrorism charges.’

‘If I work hard enough then I can’t be replaced.’

An adolescent voice said, ‘Oh, yes, you can.’

Nathalie spun on her heel and looked at the kitchen doorway. She doubled over and groaned, running her hands over her face. ‘No, please!’

Adrien, fully dressed, looked as cold and angry as his mother. He sneered and crossed his arms. ‘You hid everything from me! You helped my father terrorize Paris! And then you fell in love with him? How can I look at you? You’re not my mom and I never wanted you to be. He was always better with _her_.’

A hand brushed Nathalie’s neck from behind.

She dodged it, sprinted past Adrien, and down the fire escape.

In the street, people ran and screamed. Aliens, monsters, and in-laws chased after their victims. Sirens and alarms blared.

Overhead, a sleepy voice chanted, ‘The Sandboy just checked in. Now nightmares can begin!’

Nathalie’s jaw locked. She was going to kill him come morning.

A blow sent her stumbling.

‘Let her be, Gabriel. I want to have my own fun,’ said Emilie.

‘Go get her, mom!’ Adrien called, jumping down from the fire escape. He grinned and waved at Nathalie. ‘I hope you enjoy wherever traitorous assistants go!’

‘I never slept with him!’ screamed Nathalie, rolling away from Emilie’s long arms. ‘You’re not real—None of you are real.’

Gabriel caught Nathalie and pinned her. ‘They say that if you die in your dream then you die in reality.’

Emilie straddled the assistant. ‘Let’s test that theory.’

A perfectly manicured nail ran down Nathalie’s face, cool and firm. 

‘You thought you could steal my family,’ cooed Emilie. She rested her thumbs against the woman’s throat again. ‘ _I_ am Mrs Agreste. No one comes between me and my own.’

Red ladybugs washed over the city, sweeping away the nightmares.

Nathalie sat up and gasped, rubbing her throat. She spun about, looking for another nightmare to emerge.

‘Are you all right?’ said a man’s voice. He touched her bare arm.

Nathalie jumped and shrieked. ‘I’m sorry!’

‘No, I’m sorry.’ He smiled but his brown eyes showed deep fear. ‘Nightmares, am I right? Are you okay? Do you need help getting home?’

‘I’m fine. I live here. Thank you.’ Nathalie turned and climbed back up the fire escape. Her feet ached from the night-chilled metal.  

Once inside, she took a hot shower and scrubbed everything. As soon as she felt clean enough, she deep cleaned her apartment.

The bed sat in the middle of the bedroom. The duvet showed where she had slept. No evidence of anyone else.

She couldn’t get the smell of Emilie’s perfume out of her nose. She would have burnt the bed, the whole apartment, if she could. She settled for arranging for the bed to be removed and a new one delivered that evening.

When dawn broke, everything that could have been cleaned, changed, or delegated to the dumpster had been.

As Nathalie applied heavy concealer over her face, she noticed red marks on her neck and chest. Not bruises from the nightmare; the Miraculous Ladybug charm had seen to that.

The marks were from her own nails. Not from trying to free herself from Emilie’s grip, but afterwards. As she had cleaned and scrubbed and worked away the memory of the nightmare made physical.

Nathalie reached into a drawer and pulled out her anxiety medication. ‘Don’t be redundant.’ She popped a double dose from its packet and swallowed the pills. She closed her eyes and rested against the cool mirror. ‘You’re irreplaceable. You’re irreplaceable…’

She almost panicked when putting on her customary turtleneck. Confinement, repression, the choking of a life. But it covered the marks. Gabriel had no patience for broken people.

 

 

That evening, Nathalie turned her computer off and collected her purse. ‘Good night, sir.’

‘Good night, Nathalie.’

She went to the door, squared her shoulders, and walked over to the design station. ‘Sir?’

He looked up from the jacket on the screen. His blue-grey eyes blinked behind his heavy frames. ‘What is it?’

‘I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get her back. Even if it means being Akumatized.’

Gabriel bowed his head. ‘I could never have gotten this far without you, and with you at my side, there will be no stopping Hawkmoth.’ He smiled, showing all his teeth. ‘You will be my Catalyst.’  

Nathalie forced a faint smile. _I am not redundant. I am not redundant…_

**Author's Note:**

> Inspiration comes from: 
> 
> 1) "Gabriel's Nightmare" by messofthejess for LadyOfPurple  
> 2) Wondering what Nathalie's seemingly sudden motivation was in Heroes' Day/Mayura (rumour has it that it's explained, but ML's writers give us information at a rate that makes an IV drip look like a high-speed chase.  
> 3) I LOVED "Sandboy" because talk about terrifying and there aren't enough stories involving it!


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